Older adults' lives saved by fire sprinklers during apartment fire

Fire Engineering reports an apartment fire starting in the kitchen at a building mostly occupied by older adults was “held in check by a fire sprinkler system that activated until firefighters arrived on scene five minutes later.”

The fire started on the fourth floor of the four-story building and “firefighters quickly extinguished the remaining fire and stopped the flow of water from the sprinkler system.”

Consider the alternative outcome if this building had not been protected by fire sprinklers. Fire death risk increases with age and is exacerbated by disability factors. At age 75, people are three times as likely to be killed or injured by fires compared to the population at large. Several residents of the building where this fire occurred “were handicapped and in wheelchairs,” said acting Battalion Chief Scott Bolton, according to the report.

The incident displaced 72 senior citizens as firefighters cleared smoke from the building. The majority of the residents were able to occupy their homes a little over an hour after the fire.